tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92173992388758192042024-03-14T08:28:56.746-07:00Ash and WillAshleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.comBlogger141125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-90445999716312620262017-11-24T20:24:00.000-08:002017-11-24T21:30:11.362-08:00Happy Thanksgiving!<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">We went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade LIVE in New York City yesterday and it was AWESOME!!!! For all the years that we watched Tom Turkey on the TV, here I am in person with it!</span><br />
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We woke up when it was still dark outside and dragged the kids out of bed (sorry, kids!) and bundled up in our layers. We'd packed diapers and a Thanksgiving feast's worth of snacks into the backpack the night before. We drove into the city and parked in a garage on the upper west side - about as far west as we could stay to try to avoid parade pedestrians and traffic. Then we walked 4 long blocks over to Central Park West where there were already hundreds of people lined up/camped out. It was hard to know how far to keep going one direction or the other because every minute that passed more people would be staking out a spot. We got right behind some people in camp chairs who were behind people under sleeping bags and blankets right up at the barrier at the street. We thought we had it made because it was a big view to the street over all these sitters. Right before the parade actually started everyone cleaned up their stuff and stood. It allowed more people to be able to cram in, but it wasn't as clear a view as we originally expected. We have no idea if that's typical or not.... But we were still close enough with few enough people in front of us that we could see between heads and bodies. We held the kids up to be able to see (Andrew was mostly on my shoulders, but I had to take little breaks and just hold him in my arms because I'd get sore).</div>
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So we aimed to leave the house at 6 and were pulling out of the driveway at 6:10. We were to the garage by 6:30 and to the parade route by about 6:45. Then once you get there you just wait... easy enough for adults.... since Andrew gets limited screen time he was thrilled to sit in the stroller (just the smallest umbrella type) and watch movies and eat snacks while we waited. Ellie got tired of the carrier pretty fast and we mostly just held her, but she stood on the ground by us for little stints. We sang songs, talked to each other, talked to people around us, apologized for all the spilled snacks..., etc. It was entertaining to watch some of the sleepers wake up and hear the different groups' conversations. Most all the people we were by were pretty nice. It turned out that the sleeping on the ground group were YSA people from West Point - YCL sweatshirts, Hill Cumorah stuff, talking about EFY was what gave them away. : ) When the parade started there were some clowns passing out some really big balloons to kids/people along the barrier - whoever could reach or request one. It was either the YSAs or another nice lady that asked if our kids wanted balloons and we said they'd love them, then they passed back a big blue one that a girl tied to Andrew's coat. Ellie was really into it and disappointed not to have one, and the YSAs were able to pass back another for her. You can tell they're thick/quality balloons with quality helium. They were still at the ceiling today and the kids have loved playing with them. So that was fun. </div>
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Since we were so close to the beginning of the route (we were at about 72nd) the parade got to us by probably about 9:05/7. In all our research we learned that the farther down you go in the route the longer the viewing is - probably because of the performances, etc. We were really impressed with how efficiently the parade kept moving. It wasn't until 2/3 or 3/4 through the parade that we ever had groups have to pause in front of us and then it was just a handful of times. So for us it was an hour and a half parade (done by 10:35/7 or so) and it never felt long - just fun entertainment the whole time. Yes, it was definitely crowded leaving, but not crazy or stressful. We were glad we'd walked the little extra - we passed another garage with lots of people waiting for their cars (they're generally all valet garages). The crowds tapered as we walked back the four long blocks. Another reason we chose the garage we did was because it would be so fast and easy to just get back on Henry Hudson going north (like the freeway going up the west side). We weren't sure if it'd be bad traffic, but it wasn't bad at all. No slowing or anything. We drove back home easy in roughly 20 minutes and were back in the house relaxing upstairs to watch the rest of the parade on TV (because we could....haha) by 11:30. It was amazing how smoothly it went!!! It was fun to see on tv what we'd just seen in person.</div>
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Most people we told ahead of time that we were going to try it would tell us things like we were brave (with kids) or a little crazy. One person asked if I wanted her honest opinion then proceeded to tell me that she thought the kids were too young to enjoy it. So naturally I was super determined to have it go smoothly and have us all have a good time : ) Was it cold? Yes. (but not as cold as I thought it might be) Was it crowded? Yes, but not in a stressful way. Was it a long wait? Yes, roughly 2 hours and 20 minutes just waiting in one spot.... It was the hardest on Ellie, but none of us were ever miserable or regretted it : ) Did the kids enjoy it once the parade started? Yes, they loved it! Balloons, bands, great costumes, animals, etc. And Will passed out the m&ms at strategic moments : ) Would we do it again? Absolutely!! Probably not next year, just because.... but if you came to visit of course we would : ) Oh, were the balloons really huge? Yes... but maybe not as massive as I always thought they made it sound like on tv... It was pretty fun to watch them coming down the street then pass right over.</div>
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Ok, here's a few more pictures...<br />
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I don't know that I ever really had it on a "bucket list" to see it, but once we moved out here we couldn't leave without going at least once! I'm sure we'll go again.</div>
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We had made cranberry sauce, an apple pie, and a pecan pie the night before. Then after the parade we made the broccoli cauliflower bake and some peas. We had dinner with several other families in the ward (like 8?!), and that ended up being pretty fun. Everyone there had kids, except the hosts, but they had a great basement with lots of their grown kids' toys for the kids to play with. I realized I didn't take hardly any pictures there, but I do have a couple of the kids - none with Will and I. Andrew thought the sparkling cider was pretty great, and check out Ellie's Thanksgiving sampler : ) And then I think she mostly just ate the roll... haha<br />
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Now the only thing left to round out this holiday (because we already rounded out our tummies) is to watch Garfield's Thanksgiving!!! (sounds like... the dishwasher!!) (rub skin with butter.... well I don't see what good that will do...) (deep fat fry! deep fat fry! music to my ears!) (if you want me to relax take me to hawaii!) (i would not like that mr. wells) (wednesdays are good, and good for you!) (my, aren't we nasty today?!) (do the mashed potato! do the candied yam!) I could go on and on.... : )</div>
Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-64879458536008993122017-10-26T19:20:00.000-07:002017-10-26T19:20:00.999-07:00Trick-Or-Treat!Ok, so I've been a lousy blogger for quite a while now. That's ok for a lot of reasons. I guess it seems like a worthy time to come out of my hibernation to share this that I saw shared on facebook. I don't know who originally made it, but it was posted by Mommy Poppins Boston. (If you don't use Mommy Poppins for your area, maybe it's worth looking into for you. Sometimes it helps me!) (Oh, they put it right on there: howtobeadad.com - which I know nothing about besides they created one hilarious thing.)<br />
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Anyway. Oftentimes when I find something that I think is rather funny and go to show it to Will it's like he takes it as a challenge to not think it's as funny as I do just to give me a hard time. Maybe that's just when I'm laughing so hard that I can hardly talk and he thinks I must be bonkers or too tired or it's some brand of funny that he doesn't think is as funny.... (like stay at home mom humor?). <br />
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But here I was laughing (out loud) to myself thinking how funny this thing was and I hand over the laptop for him to see it. I see him purse his lips like he does when he's preparing to see what I think is so funny and the determination in his eyes to not laugh. I watch him closely, still laughing myself. And then? He laughs! So then I'm laughing harder. Tears streaming down my face. He reads aloud some of the things that got me and I laugh more again. <br />
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Please tell me this makes you laugh, too. And if you pursed your own lips taking this as a don't laugh challenge, then maybe you're a party pooper. ha! We're passing out jack-o-lantern and bat shaped pretzels and pencils this year. Maybe that makes us party poopers? I was surprised how popular the pencils were at our ward's trunk-or-treat last weekend. And there was one kid who when he found out they were pretzels, he backs away and says, "nevermind." hahaha<br />
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And I remember the year we passed out dum dums : ) Cheapy McCheapface.... hahahaha<br />
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Happy Halloween! (which we've been celebrating all month with activities, parties, outings, treats, etc, because apparently Halloween is the new Christmas! : ) (you know what I mean.) (And our kids are the cutest bat and cat there ever were!)<br />
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<img alt="Image may contain: text" src="https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/22729056_1610511292345675_8570235400128884217_n.jpg?oh=2aed983195784c5b7ecd5269cef9ff42&oe=5A62CCEC" />Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-37153561918209460382017-01-31T13:40:00.000-08:002017-01-31T13:40:18.349-08:00Teach MeToday marks one year from the day that Andrew finally started walking. I remember because it was my brother's birthday (shout out! : ). We were in Sunday School and though Andrew was quite a fast crawler, he finally decided he was ready to walk to keep up with his little friend, Lydia. He was two weeks shy of 18 months and starting nursery.<br />
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When he was younger he learned to roll over without too much trouble - demonstrating the ability to roll both ways by the time we were at his 4 month appointment. He learned how to pivot himself, so between turning and rolling he was able to get almost anywhere he wanted and was content. Eventually he learned to army crawl and got really pretty good. Good for him, terrible for his clothes - he dust mopped everywhere we went. It wasn't until he was around a year (or over a year and we had moved?) that he finally started crawling on his hands and knees. By the time we moved and he was 14 months he could pull up to stand at things, but never attempted steps and wasn't able to just stand up wherever. By mid-December when he was about 16 months we could get him to try to stand and start to take some steps going back and forth between us.<br />
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We were never really concerned that he'd never learn, but we did wonder how long it would take. The hardest parts were the ruined clothes, the inconvenience at times, and the awkward social factor ("actually, no, our toddler can't walk..."). But of course as I spent pretty much all day every day with him it was always in my face that he lacked the skill, so I thought about it a lot. We tried to encourage desire and support development.<br />
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One day when we were living (temporarily) in Jersey City I had a simple experience that helped to put things in perspective for me. As we were trying to entertain ourselves in the apartment that was only so big, and with only so many toys and books at our disposal, I watched him crawling around and I tried to encourage some standing or step taking. I started to think in a little bit of desperation again: when will he ever learn to walk??! Suddenly I had the words to a children's song that we liked to sing to him sometimes (and still do) come into my mind: "Teach me to walk in the light." Of course we wanted him to learn to walk, and he would when the time was right, but more importantly, and what I really should be focusing my efforts on was teaching him the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how to live and love it in our family and in his own life.<br />
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Since that day in late October or early November 2015 I've tried to keep that experience and thought close to me and in the forefront of my mind. Helping my kids learn and develop in physical, mental, social, and emotional (etc) ways is absolutely important. But the most important of all is helping them learn how to have a testimony of their own - through my teaching, love, and especially example.<br />
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Now he's been able to walk (run? : ) for a whole year and continues to build on his gross and fine motor capabilities. (He's sitting right here, tongue out in concentration, cutting me piece after piece of construction paper to add to my growing pile ("here Mom!") with his brand new safety scissors that he's so excited about! : ) Even though he's hit that typically early-life physical milestone, I hope I can always remember that teaching him to walk in the light is a life-long effort and worth more than all the other things I can help him learn.Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-59047374398561325522016-07-14T11:55:00.002-07:002016-07-14T11:55:55.859-07:00Twohead<div>
Not on purpose we exposed Andrew to counting backward before much counting forward. As we've made progress with his teeth brushing (hallelujah!) he still needs something akin to a three ring circus to keep us all sane. After we get whatever amount of brushing seems reasonable before we're all going to die done we count down from 10 - then he knows his torture (and ours) is almost over. He's heard it enough, I guess, that he started to apply it to other situations. I had him in the shower with me once and he looks forward to when the water is "down low" out of the tub faucet so he can play in it. He has to wait until I'm done, though, and just play with his other tub toys while he waits. He was getting impatient once (5-6 weeks ago?) and after petitioning repeatedly ("water down low", which sounds more like "wa dow low") I hear him take matters into his own hands: "Ten, one, zero!" haha : ) When that didn't work immediately he tried again several times and I realized what he was saying and trying to get me to do - my turn was over and it was going to be time for his water down low! ha We've continued to make some progress as I've had the shower to myself for the last couple days and he prefers to "play toys" simultaneously. As convenient as it is to bathe him at the same time, I'm not complaining!</div>
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In the last month or two we've talked a little more about numbers and counting forward. This is mostly with numbers or counting books, but some other times, too. As a totally biased and proud parent I can report that Andrew can generally successfully count things to 2. : )<div>
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He often refers to groups of things as being 2. It seems that "2" refers to 2 or more. If he is counting with you he is actually getting pretty good and can often stay with you (plenty of room for improvement, though). We really don't try to push anything, just count when it's in a counting book or other natural times. He enjoys it and now will initiate the counting on his own. You can hear his cute little voice, "One, two, one, two, one, two," etc... ha : ) </div>
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Somehow as he learned all sorts of body parts we never really talked about the forehead much. So in the last few months he's learned about the forehead, elbows, etc. He'll point out elbows at the most random (to us) times.</div>
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With all this numbers talk, though, I can see how it's easy to get confused... I've heard him several times in the last few weeks refer to not his forehead, but his "twohead"....... hahahahaha : )</div>
Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-39424579438759835552016-06-27T12:53:00.000-07:002016-06-28T11:15:23.677-07:00Captain Moroni: A worthy heroThis morning we went right when the library opened at 10 to sign ourselves up for the summer reading program. Not because you can't sign up any day of the summer, but because they had a "free gift" for the first 25 to sign up (for adults at least, but I thought I'd read that for kids) and we like freebies and what if it was a free book??!!!! I'm pretty sure I saw them give a kid a cellophane bag with a bookmark and pencil in it saying it was his "gift" so then I really didn't want one for Andrew because, let's be honest, it would come home and just sit here because he doesn't need a bookmark and I try to keep most writing utensils away from him right now unless he's under highest levels of supervision.<br />
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We filled out Andrew's little registration slip, his first raffle ticket, and he colored a picture for the display. They had lots of different little sports related pictures and I took the liberty of choosing the bike for him. He liked it, dumped out his box of crayons and actually sat there for at least 5 minutes using a variety of colors to scribble all over it. I was really impressed. I'm sure it helped that all the other kids were older than him and so he was just doing what the big kids were doing. He also told me about the "airplanes" he was adding to the picture, which is one of the specific things he says he's drawing so far (the others being trains or cars, of course). He also got to eat a cookie after all that. I did show him his three options and then was happy that he was happy with a vanilla sandwich cookie (seemed least messy). After he opened it and ate the filling he told me he was all done so I finished it.<br />
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We spent some time in one of the other rooms reading some, playing with toys, and him inserting himself into the KidPix play of some kids on the computer. By the time we left his little picture was already up on the bulletin board. We went upstairs to sign me up and she gave me a plastic summer reading program bag and told me it was my free gift. After we were home I saw that it did actually have a "READ" pen and three mini York Peppermint Patties in it. Ok, I guess that's a decent "gift" after all - consumable! Jeff, remember when Mom used to get us big Yorks while we were out running errands and then we'd get to go home and eat them in the back yard??!<br />
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We ended up being there longer than I had anticipated - I didn't really know they were having activities. We were back home just after 11 to get the grocery bags and take a picture of the shopping list. We do it that way now after I'm pretty sure I lost our old notebook in the store or left it in the cart. It's really just one more thing to carry. Anyway, we drive to Aldi and by the time we're there he's asleep!!! I didn't realize he was that tired already, but we were there, so I woke him up to shop.<br />
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We did our shopping there and Walmart and then headed home. I thought if he had been that tired there was a good chance he'd fall asleep again, but he didn't. Pros and cons.... Great that I could feed him lunch before his nap, but it makes carrying in all the groceries a little trickier - lots of small trips (to the porch, inside the font door, then the final leg to the kitchen). A few bags, a watermelon, two milks, and ice cream to worry about in the heat of the day, but we made it. Luckily he was cooperative to come inside easier than sometimes... I worked on getting things put away while he ate his bean soup and applesauce. (I like that my toddler likes bean soup, by the way : ) <br />
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The routine is after he's washed I take him straight up to his bed for a nap. Today, probably because he was overtired, he was upset about something and I realize he's asking for Go Dog Go! So we get the book, sit on the couch and read it. During the book he reaches over to grab the Friend magazine. I try to slip it away while he's enjoying all the dogs and cars because I don't want to stray too far from the routine and it was getting later. We finish Go Dog Go! and he now is wanting the Friend magazine. This is our first Friend magazine ever. It just arrived on Saturday and we pulled it out for the first time yesterday. He already knows he likes it, though, which is good. I open it up and he points out several pictures. We turn the page and we're to the little simple story about Captain Moroni. Still trying to keep it short I'm just letting him point out things. Then I decide I should take the opportunity and it has so few words anyway so I read it to him. He likes the flag and he likes Captain Moroni. He sees a mom and a dad and some kids. He's asking for a flag like Moroni's. I tell him we can get one after his nap and he's satisfied enough. <br />
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I take him upstairs and he's happy to see his bed and pacifier. Like usual he requests some songs. Last night he went into his bed in a wild tantrum over wanting The Wheels on the Bus over and over, which Will did a few times and he had already done the little board book of it before putting him in his bed. This afternoon he's requesting Wheels on the Bus again so I sing each verse he suggests. Then I switch to some Primary songs. Somehow Moroni comes up again and we're talking about his flag. Then he requests a Moroni song...... I can't think of one.... He's distressed so I check the LDS music app searching "Moroni." That only brings up songs that have a Moroni scripture at the bottom. He's escalating and I tell him I'll try to find one for after his nap. I see there's a song about the angel appearing to Joseph Smith and it works to sub Moroni's name, so I try that but by now he's irrational and it's not good enough. I even try singing "Moroni, Moroni, Moroni" to my own tune and he won't accept it... hahaha. I turn on his CD with Primary songs, tell him I love him and to have a good nap, and I leave while he's in mid-tantrum over me not being able to provide a Moroni song... all while trying not to giggle.... Don't worry, he calmed down after a few minutes.<br />
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I texted Will what was going on and he reminded me of the song on the Seminary CD (but it never actually mentions his name). I kept thinking of the one from From Cumorah's Hill that has the line, "I stand with Nephi and Moroni." But I was blanking beyond that.... And in all my searching in the last little while as I've had lunch I can't find a song about Captain Moroni.... He gets such a nice scripture about him - can we please get a song about Captain Moroni????!!! Alma 48:17 says, "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."<br />
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I guess I could work on one myself, but this is not my area of expertise.... Lindsay??? Brett???? Help a sister out, here! And help a nephew out... hahaha <br />
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But if we're going to have tantrums I guess it makes it a little easier when your sweet not-yet-two year old is so distraught over his desire for something Captain Moroni related... haha I guess now I know which scripture hero figurine to get him for his birthday!<br />
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Who on earth is she talking about??? Here is a <a href="https://www.lds.org/friend/2016/07/captain-moronis-flag?lang=eng">link</a> to the same story that I've read Andrew a few times in his brand new Friend magazine about Captain Moroni. Here is a <a href="https://www.lds.org/friend/1994/05/captain-moroni-and-the-title-of-liberty?lang=eng">different link</a> to the same story, but another version from a different issue that has a little bit more detail. He was a great leader who loved God and stood up for important things like religion, freedom, peace, and families.Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-38524995141795282562016-06-26T12:33:00.001-07:002016-06-26T12:33:18.387-07:00Watch out Betty!One day last week I made strawberry freezer jam (yum!!) with strawberries that Andrew and I had hand picked. That very same day I made crock pot veggie lasagna that turned out excellent. It included fresh basil that I trimmed off our own plant! The next day I made a pound cake to eat more strawberries with. All so good!<br />
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You: How very domestic of you!<br />
Me: I KNOW!!Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-51135714253342565262016-06-08T12:22:00.000-07:002016-06-08T12:22:49.344-07:00Adoption is Wonderful : )Posted by a friend on facebook along with some old family pictures: "[so and so] found proof that I wasn't adopted!"<br />
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So tell me..... what's wrong with being adopted?<br />
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Absolutely nothing. We could not love Andrew any more if he were a biological son. He is definitely meant for our family and will be a fantastic big brother. Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for all of us and in our case that meant adopting Andrew.<br />
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I'm fairly sure that most people, if asked, would say great things about adoption whether they were personally touched by it or not. Somehow that doesn't stop people from making jokes like this, though. Maybe you, as an adult?, can discern what's meant to be a playful joke (or not), but what about children, teenagers, or even young adults feeling confused or trying to figure out their own thoughts and feelings. All children are blessings from heaven - whether they come to you biologically or not. The implication that an adoption is second-rate can be harmful and is untrue.<br />
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This reminds me of the meme that I won't pass on here because it irritates me. Two babies - one teasing the other about being adopted. In several years when he can understand more what would my son think when he saw that? <br />
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There are enough questions and emotions that can come for an adopted child. There are enough negative ideas, stereotypes, and comments made to and about those involved with adoption. Please don't fuel it!<br />
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Instead, celebrate the beautiful people and relationships that we are all blessed by because of adoption! If you aren't touched personally now, I'm sure you know someone who is or will be touched some day. <br />
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Adoption is wonderful : )Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-48089829163314630562016-05-04T11:33:00.000-07:002016-05-04T11:33:07.934-07:00Book Club LoveFor whatever reason our "new" ward doesn't really have relief society meetings, activities, or whatever you want to call them. When we first moved here I either figured one would maybe come up soon, or it was just a busy time of year. Really it didn't take long, though, to get a feel for many of the ways things are different here and while I remained hopeful, I became more and more sure that they just don't happen here. When there finally was a stake RS activity in March I was thrilled. There's also a regional women's broadcast next week that I'm looking forward to!<br />
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We do have, though, a small but decent group of moms with young kids that like to get together sometimes more sometimes less often. It's nice to be able to do that during the day sometimes - get to know the other moms better, the kids get to know each other better, etc. Sometimes that's announced in RS, but it's usually just organized among ourselves and nothing official about it.<br />
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The one thing that has been consistently announced and happened monthly is a book club meeting. It sounds like the ward has had one off and on over time, and this time around it was started up again not long before we moved in (maybe?). As soon as we were out of Jersey City and closer to everyone in the ward I started going. I must have had a conflict in December, that or they didn't meet, but since January I've made sure to go every month. This being the only "relief society activity" I can expect and count on, it's pretty important to me to take advantage. I know you know why: once a month I can have an evening with other women and I get a break.<br />
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It's not a large group. Sometimes as few as four (I don't think it's been down to three), and last night it seemed like a big group at six! One friend there is seven or eight years older than me, and with her youngest being four, sometimes she's at play group, but not always. (Andrew adores her boys, though!) Anyway, after her, I don't know how many more years, but we jump up to women around my mom's age and then one or two beyond that. I like playgroup and relating with people in a similar situation to me, but I LOVE going to book club and spending time with these "older" women. Sure, I like reading, and it's nice to discuss the books, but I really love going to talk with, listen to, and learn from these women. And they're nice enough to talk with me too : ) They're definitely all different and each has unique things that I enjoy, but I really look forward to it and am sad if they aren't coming.<br />
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In January we talked about books we might read this year. Then I read the books for February and March. April's book was long and tedious, though I still liked what I did read (My Dearest Friend: Letters of John and Abigail Adams). The book that we read for last night was even longer. It was nearly 1,000 pages and I decided not to read it and instead work on other books (like more of the John and Abigail book). <br />
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Will knew that I wasn't reading it. He also knew that book club was coming up for last night. He knows how much I love going to be with those women and what it means to me to have a night each month to go. Last night we cleaned up dinner and had some family time before I left (doesn't start until 7:30) then he happily distracted and calmed Andrew as I was leaving, cheerfully telling him that mom was going to book club. He told me to have a good time and not to worry that I hadn't read the book. What a guy : ) I love book club and I love Will!Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-30622304698900634142016-05-03T13:35:00.001-07:002016-05-03T13:35:11.395-07:00Viva la cake!You would have thought it was Thanksgiving week the way I've spent a good chunk of nap time today looking over recipes and Pinterest and making a shopping list. I also made a small sample size recipe to test something out. I super love just about all Thanksgiving foods and consider the group of them to be on my top 10 favorite foods list. Not that I've ever really had a list... : )<br />
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But no. Thanksgiving will have to wait a while until it's getting cold again and we go back to leafless trees. And really, after living in a place of practically perpetual summer, this girl is already wrinkling her nose at the thought of next year's winter. ("But this year it was so mild!" they've told me. And, "Just wait until it really snows more next year," they say.) Now that we're back to leaves on the trees my soul feels lighter. Green is good! At least winter brings Thanksgiving food : )<br />
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What a tangent! Anyway, this week we're taking advantage of our American right to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with our southern neighbors! I enjoy cultural things from other countries, but I especially love the excuse to eat the food. Mexican, or American Mexican, is also on my top 10 favorite foods list. Guacamole, salsa, chips, cheese, etc! I like to take the opportunity to make a tres leches cake and I plan to make horchata.<br />
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How fun it would be to listen to a live mariachi band like we got lucky to hear in Balboa Park last summer or to see some dancers with those pretty dresses that I love... I suppose we could have a pinata, but since I'm also making food for the ward chili dinner/YW camp fundraiser the next night, likely not. Perhaps we will watch one of those old south of the border specials - The Three Caballeros or Saludos Amigos! I'm pretty sure I've blogged in years past about how I got Will to watch them with me years ago when we were dating, probably for Cinco de Mayo... what a good sport! That's how I knew he was the one... ha : ) Actually, it couldn't have been then - must have been earlier. I remember specifically that he was gone to New Mexico and I had made a tres leches to share with my roommates and begrudgingly shared some with one of Will's former roommates who had come by for some reason. Cake? (I had known this guy actually longer than Will and he'd just about used up all his extraneous-goodwill-from-Ashley cards for things like eating my precious tres leches.... he had probably used them up before I'd even met Will.... haha...)<br />
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Anyway. We've been missing taquerias from California, so this will have to do for now. And you can't go wrong with horchata and tres leches.... and chips and salsa and guacamole and cilantro!! Unless you're Will.... then you give all your cilantro to meeee! : <br />
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"Salsa is now the number one condiment in America. Do you know why? Because people like to say 'salsa!'"Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-80996947541488359822016-04-13T19:03:00.002-07:002016-04-13T19:03:26.366-07:00Sodiyum!I admit it... I like salt....<br />
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There, I said it. Ok, I've said it before : ) I had a good friend my freshman year of college who would shake salt onto just about everything she ate. I didn't grow up with that habit, and thankfully didn't adopt it. I just really like salty foods. I think I more often am craving salty things than sweet things, and like the sweet/salty taste of things like kettle corn, too!<br />
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I've been sitting here for about an hour doing computer things that needed done - writing back to so and so about this or that, looking up my next library book, etc. About 20 minutes ago I got a snack (because of the small salad dinner I had because of the large lunch I had with Will at his work today). What did I grab for a not long before bed snack? My generic brand triscuts! My woven wheats : ) I don't often have these around, but they were impulsively purchased last week on a shopping trip on the afternoon that I had planned to nap while Andrew did, but due to him napping only about 15 minutes I did not get my nap. : ( I was very tired, and so was he. After I tried to get him back down I did what I should have done a lot sooner: strapped him in and taken him for a drive. Of course when we arrived at the store and I realized he was asleep I was somewhat annoyed (mostly that I didn't do it sooner or have something along to read - please note that at this moment I resisted the temptation to go one parking lot over to get myself a milkshake!), but glad, too, that he was getting more rest. When I tried to loosen his coat after about 20 minutes in the parking lot (as the sun came in) he woke up. Ok, fine, I thought, we'll go in and shop. I was tired (and hormonal) and he was being "such a good boy" (but really), so there I am in Aldi trying not to cry........... This is real, people. I went on to buy myself the woven wheats and him a 12 pack of pre-packaged cheese-filled mini-sandwich crackers (think ritz-bitz, but also generic brand). He had never had them before, I don't think, but judging by the packaging was interested right away. He's had them twice now since then.... and loves them. So that's how and why I have my woven wheats.<br />
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Anyway, as I have been sitting here "working" and snacking I noticed something (that I'm pretty sure I already knew I did). As I pick up a cracker I inspect both sides to see which side has the salt. Then I make sure to put the cracker salt-side down on my tongue to fully enjoy the salty flavor with the oily wheat. Delicious : )Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-39644753713977686012016-03-04T11:47:00.001-08:002016-03-04T11:47:17.940-08:00Wants vs. NeedsA few years ago (or so?) there was a blog-based challenge of sorts to tell interesting/quirky things about yourself. You were probably supposed to say a certain number of things - 10? 100?. Was it on your blog, Jeanette? Anyway, I've had in the back of my mind, for a few years now, the question on what sorts of things I'd say about myself. At one point I had reached 3 weird things about myself, but only remember one really... and it drives Will (somewhat) crazy... hahaha<br />
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I have this weird need to scroll back to the top of a page before I leave it.<br />
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It can be via keypad, scroll bar, scroll wheel, etc, but I NEED to get back to the top before leaving the page. Why? I don't know. I guess it just feels more complete that way. It bugs me if not. So if Will is watching me navigate, he knows it's coming so he can question my sanity, and he reminds me that I really don't have to go all the way back to the top, you know. But it doesn't take that long and I just feel better!<br />
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I think one of the other things was that I need to have my hair pulled taut upward while lying on my pillow to fall asleep (while I'm conscious and can feel it). To have your hair just swimming all around underneath you is just weird and not comfortable.<br />
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If I remember that third thing I'll definitely let you know.... : )Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-68289499656482305942016-01-31T13:43:00.002-08:002016-01-31T13:43:37.373-08:00Where are your eyes?Sometimes Andrew notices that his toy or a picture in a book has eyes and he'll point them out. You can ask him where his eyes are, but he's not very likely to show you. He does, however, point to mine (or Will's). More accurately, he pokes me in the eye.<div>
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Sometimes he will also show me my hair, or maybe my nose or ear. These are less common, though. The eyes are much more interesting for now. For the most part, the one he's most willing to show you of his own is his head.</div>
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Since Will and I both wear glasses, Andrew gets told a lot that we don't play with glasses or pull them off someone's face. He's getting pretty good at reaching under my glasses to poke me in the eye when we're talking about eyes.</div>
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Yesterday he was showing me, again, the eyes on a toy. I asked him where his eyes were. He reaches toward my face, per usual, and I close my eyes, ready to squint to protect myself from the poke. Then what do I feel, but a little finger go straight up my nose!! Ha! Quite the sensation when unexpected. We'll keep working on our body parts : )</div>
Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-38186529338380017372016-01-28T11:35:00.000-08:002016-01-28T11:35:20.971-08:00Cook bookHere's my next million dollar idea: a book (or website, whatever) that gives directions to make a meal with multiple recipes and tells you the order to do things across recipes. It's hard to put it into words... I know, I know, I just have to use a little critical thinking and analyze the recipes before I start and think about efficiency, but that doesn't always happen. Real life always happens though.<br />
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I'm making two new-to-me recipes tonight. Because I want to and that's fun to me. But they're for feeding to other people, too, so there's a time deadline. I've tried to think about what I can do ahead of time, as both of them are to be served right away so I want to get the timing right. I'm still a little unsure when exactly to start and how I'll decide to go back and forth between the two. <br />
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Maybe my book would also have tips that tell you that it's ok for something to wait a little bit longer while you attend to this other thing, or if that would surely give disappointing results.<br />
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Maybe the answer is don't make new recipes for other people because you don't even know if it will be good! ha! And that doesn't even include the gluten-free brownie mix.... (at the request of one for the other as a birthday surprise... even though her birthday isn't for a couple weeks, but she's going home next week...) But (un?)fortunately I can mix a brownie mix in my sleep, so I'm not worried about that!Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-44630582206105750462016-01-11T12:15:00.000-08:002016-01-11T12:15:43.766-08:00Toothpaste ChickenWe're really "money's-worth" and "bargain" kind of people. We try not to be wasteful either. When someone might classify a food container (peanut butter, for example) as empty and toss it, I would feel remorseful if I hadn't used a scraper spatula to get the last bits out before taking care to recycle it. Waste not, want not, right??? I was taught well. : )<br />
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So someone else likely would have tossed our tube of toothpaste days before we did, but it just kept on a'givin! You think you've squeezed it enough, but have you re-squeezed from the bottom and sides?? And then re-re-squeezed? There are more little crevices to pinch and squeeze than you think! It got to a point where I thought surely it must almost really be all gone every morning and night. It became a game of toothpaste chicken - who was going to give up first?! I think most people make a good effort, but this time, for whatever reason, it seemed to stretch out for many days. Finally on Saturday night I found the new tube of toothpaste waiting for me. I could say that I won, but we both got clean teeth out of it : )<br />
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On a related note, please send all your tried and true methods for successfully brushing a toddler's (what??!) teeth -- short of strapping them to a board.Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-63417698247442912082016-01-03T19:14:00.000-08:002016-01-04T06:55:33.951-08:00Happy old year! Happy new year!2015 was a good year for our family. Andrew's adoption was finalized and we were all sealed together to be an eternal family in the Oakland temple. Those two things were by far the best parts of our year. Though every moment wasn't rosy, there were plenty of other good things that happened that we look back on fondly. <br />
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After putting off recruiters for well over a year (because we knew it wasn't the right time, especially after Andrew was born), Will surprised them by applying for a job early 2015. The next several months brought hours and days of preparation and sacrifice for the whole family. (I wondered how my friend could be surviving having her husband working full time and in school and gained a greater admiration for her. Lucky for me this wasn't a semesters or years long commitment.) It helped that we both knew that it was all for our good. After many interviews, other proceedings, and just plain waiting (sound like adoption, anyone? : ) Will was offered a job different than he had originally applied for and certainly a different location. Rural New Mexico vs. New York City. <br />
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We made all the necessary preparations to leave California and begin again on the East Coast. We were really excited to experience new surroundings and it's proved excellent so far. There have been many adjustments, but we're loving this grand adventure so far. Never having moved growing up this has been my first real experience moving away from people and places and not really having plans to return to visit. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. BYU was different, I guess, because everyone planned to move on. I have some dear friends in Tracy that I miss a lot, but thanks to the internet and phones I can keep in touch easily. Now we're working on getting to know new friends out here.<br />
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Adoption/sealing, new job/moving. Those are the main ways we'd sum up 2015 and it was all totally awesome. <br />
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Now, the new year is here! I always love the talks and lessons in church about goal setting and the new beginnings that everyone thinks about with a new year. Looking forward to new opportunities and planning to become better is exciting! It's true that through our Savior's Atonement we can begin again and try to become better at any time - what a blessing! But I also think it's great that we can collectively reflect and look forward to improvement with a special time of year. All that along with enjoying the life experiences that come our way makes the new year an exciting time! <br />
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Here's to the next happy year! We haven't lived it yet, so we can't give any spoilers as to how it turns out... But we can say that we celebrated the new year eating treats and making it to midnight. Except Andrew. He went to bed as usual, and then woke up at about 12:05 (thanks neighbors? who are really very nice!) so then got to sleep in mom and dad's bed snuggled up with us and made sure we didn't sleep in the next morning. We hung around home new year's day morning, then in the late afternoon/early evening we went to see some mini "homes" that were decorated as different homes or other buildings from A Christmas Carol. They were neat, but it was pretty cold. Those were only about 15 minutes away from a zoo we went to see the holiday lights at after. Of course it was even colder there, but we had a good time seeing the handful of animals we could and the lights. We also got to ride on their cute little zoo train with lights and Polar Express music. Andrew loves trains, so that made it fun, but with the breeze I think we all haf second thoughts once the train was going. When we couldn't stand the cold any longer (and we really were done otherwise) we left.<br />
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Yesterday's fun was satisfying our (nearly) life-long curiosity to see the Harlem Globetrotters! Will said we were going to see a game. I said we were going to see a show. We were both right : ) Not exactly what I had expected, but we had a good time. Andrew just thought it was great to see so many basketballs! We got to go to the new arena in Brooklyn to see it, so that was nice. And how convenient that there was a Shake Shack right across the street! We're looking forward to the rest of 2016!<br />
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<br />Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-27448617632989045252015-12-27T18:12:00.001-08:002015-12-27T18:12:35.407-08:00Moving to our houseWelp, we bought a house! We thought we'd buy in Tracy and tried to a few years ago, but as soon as we started trying the prices and competition went way up, so after a good effort of overbidding like 20+ other people on each house for a few months we were exhausted. We were not willing to bid sight-unseen like many of them, and were often too slow even when we made an effort to see an offer within a couple days. Our associated experiences were part of what helped us know that we were not to stay in Tracy long-term. We happened across a small house for rent near the end of our (relatively short) ride on the California real estate roller coaster, so at least we were out of the apartment for the next couple of years. We weren't sure how long we were supposed to be there, but knew that that was temporary, too. When we knew it was time to move away from Tracy and come to the East, we were also ready to try buying a house again.<br />
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We found the house on a short trip in September before we moved. Will flew back out to be present for the inspection just about two weeks after that. He flew out of San Diego where we'd been partying once more with cousins and going to Disneyland. The very next day Andrew and I drove home together, I fed him and put him to bed, then had a friend come rest on our couch (so Andrew could sleep in his bed) while I drove out to San Francisco to pick Will up at the airport at midnight coming back from the inspection trip. Whew!<br />
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As we started on the offer paperwork, etc, the sellers agreed to close about as fast as we could with all the legal requirements. That was going to be awesome because we would close just about the time that we would have to move out of our short-term housing covered by relocation. Before too long, though, they requested that we actually close two weeks later because they didn't expect the house to sell so fast and they wanted to have a place to move into themselves. We said our side - coming from across the country and not having any family or friends to go to short term and basically they met us in the middle, closing just one week after originally planned. We had another tender mercy as we were able to extend our short-term housing one week but absolutely had to be out just two days after closing.<br />
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We closed on our first house on November 12! Some new friends in the ward who have a daughter pretty close to Andrew's age kept him happy at their house while we signed paper after paper. When we were done it was approaching evening time and getting dark. We had brought a few things in the car to drop off at the house so we made the stop. Even though we'd done the final walk through that morning, of course it had a different feel then since it was officially ours (and the bank's... : ) So Andrew crawled around some and climbed the stairs, then we were on our way again. Because we'd have to drive back down to Jersey City and it was getting later (and we had dwindling food choices at the apartment) we decided to just stop somewhere. And where else would you celebrate buying your first house other than Boston Market??? : ) Probably the most extravagant part was that we actually, for the first time ever, bought Andrew his own kid's meal. We decided that was a mistake... at that particular place, at least. (I'd never been to a Boston Market before, btw (ha).) <br />
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The next day was Friday and Will was able to stay home from work to work on moving our stuff from the apartment to the house. I know it seems like it shouldn't have taken that long. But our car is only so big. We had clothes, suitcases, toys, books, toiletries, food, diapers and wipes, Andrew's old car seat, booster chair, etc to take over. We ended up taking two trips on Friday. The traffic was moderate Friday morning and the first trip didn't take too too long (but still a few hours total at least). The next trip took a lot longer because it was late afternoon on a Friday, so lots of traffic. I can't remember what took so long, if anything besides the traffic, but it was late when we were headed back. Like 8 pm? Late for Andrew. So we stopped off at Wendy's on the way to get a highly nutritious dinner. Andrew didn't care for his chicken nuggets, but was interested in my hamburger. Noted. When we got back there was still a bunch of random things that needed loaded into the car. We needed to be out by noon the next day, but at the time we thought it was 10 am. On top of that, the Elders were coming with an investigator in the morning to help us move the old fridge to the basement so that our own fridge could go into the spot when the movers came Monday. They said they could come at 9, so that meant leaving the apartment by about 8. So we didn't want to leave much loading for Saturday morning. Will had gotten a bad headache so while he rested on the couch I made a couple trips down to the car. That entails: down the elevator, through the lobby (borrow the cart and go back to the apt to load it), up the other elevator to the parking garage, then drag the cart to the car, pile things onto the seats. (We weren't sure how much space we needed to save in the trunk for an appliance dolly the next morning.)<br />
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Saturday morning we got up and ready and double checked all the nooks and crannies for stuff we'd forgotten. We did our final arm loads and took out the garbage. Once in the car we drove out of the building, then Will had to run back inside and up to the apartment to leave the keys and parking pass inside then lock it on his way out. Then we were on our way to Home Depot to pick up an appliance dolly, then to the house. We made it in plenty of time before our help came. I cover my eyes and only peek a little when something is happening like the Elders' free moving service is helping us move an extremely heavy item across floors and through doorways that we just bought a couple days before. Luckily with only a couple minor incidents they successfully got it out, around the back, and into the basement. We did have to remove the basement door with the tools that our very friendly new neighbors let us borrow. They had to get it at just the perfect angle to get it in. I was about ready to say forget it, but they did it! All the while Andrew was restless in his monkey footie pajamas and getting dirty as I let him crawl around the deck. We didn't have a ton to do the rest of the day - made sure we had some food and a way to eat it the next day (Sunday), let Andrew play around the empty house (that I desperately wished I had my vacuum to use before any stuff came in, oh well...and you can only bug your brand new neighbors so many times on day 1), went on a neighborhood walk and checked out the library, and then went out to dinner again. This time we went to.... Chili's (I think) to use a gift card we've had. No kids meal for Andrew this time : ) He's happy to share, though. And boy does he love drinking the water through the straw! Andrew could still sleep in the pack and play and Will and I slept on the floor that night. <br />
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We went to church the next day as usual and spent another day sitting on the floor. And eating dinner on the floor : ) Monday morning the movers came with our stuff!<br />
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Well, I don't know what happened to my latest work - so we're missing the entire chunk that I know you're all dying to know about. The part that due to a packing snafu (or two or three? : ) I ended up wearing only one sock for the moving fun Friday. I accidentally ended up in Jersey City with a small amount of socks in the first place. Then somehow for Friday I only had one sock... I kept forgetting to get another whenever we were at the house. How could you forget something like that??? Weird, I know. Finally Saturday when we were done running back and forth I was finally able to coddle both feet at once rather than picking one at a time. Aren't you glad I retyped a new version of that fascinating detail???? I also ended up without flip flops in Jersey City, but that really only mattered the first few days before it got colder. I forgot shoes for a family camping trip once as a teenager, but luckily that was a short overnighter in a not very primitive place (by the Clark County fair grounds?).<br />
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So here we are now! We've been making progress on unpacking and organizing things, but Andrew makes sure that we don't go too fast. Things are functional, but we still have a lot of work to do to get it how we want it (our stuff). After having our old couches moved across the country we were a little disappointed to discover that they wouldn't fit where we had planned to put them (through doorways and around corners), but we're really not that sad because they were nothing special. We gave them away to a nice guy who lives "up the street" who came to pick them up with his dad between his busy work and finals schedules. Now we're back to limited seating options as the couch we bought online several weeks ago has yet to arrive... because of some mess-ups on their end. Hopefully it will come this week! <br />
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Once the old couches were out we had room for a Christmas tree! Also plenty of room to drive our dump truck and all other vehicles.</div>
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<br />Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-91800099514844485922015-12-03T12:37:00.001-08:002015-12-03T12:37:13.247-08:00I said yes!So, you were probably expecting this next post to be about moving to our new house. Well, sorry, it's not. You'll just have to wait a little longer!<br />
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Instead I'm making record of a dream I had yesterday morning not too long before I woke up for the morning. I'd write it down in this one particular journal, but I don't know where it's packed...<br />
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Anyway, part of the dream was a ward campout (love those!) with people from Cascade Park ward and Hidden Lake ward. (Hidden Lake ward doesn't do those though... at least not while we lived there.) I thought it was awesome! Then the setting was a little different (so maybe separate dream?), but there was a childhood friend who recently got engaged (in real life), Will, and me sitting at a table (maybe someone else?). After a weird exchange in which I fed my friend a bite of eggs Will said he needed to pull me aside. Then we were on this staircase thing (made of stone?) and he said he had wanted to ask me something before I said anything to my friend... Then he asked me to marry him!!! We were both so happy and excited!!<br />
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I woke up ecstatic and told Will : )<br />
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I know and love Will more at this point than I did when he really asked me to marry him 7 and a half years ago, so of course I was super happy! What an excellent dream! : )Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-87502810533268836302015-11-08T19:00:00.000-08:002015-11-08T19:00:38.301-08:00Halloween 2015H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N! I can't remember any more of the song than that... But it didn't stop me from singing that much to Andrew over and over again!<br />
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I'm not always one to be into dressing up for Halloween. Largely because I have such a hard time committing to a costume idea. Also because I'm cheap and don't want to shell out much money for something that potentially could just be worn once. So I look at ideas and think about how I could do something relatively simply and cheap. After so many days of this it's suddenly almost Halloween. When it was just Will and I, we more often than not didn't dress up at all. Now with Andrew I feel like it's somewhere in the parental contract to dress your kid up. Really, though, what kind of parent would I be if we didn't??! Will feels like we're totally off the hook for ourselves now, but I'm not against dressing up if I have a good plan : ) Anyway, this year I was also having to keep in mind our temporary status - no sewing machine, limited other resources (like a glue gun), etc. I spent way too much time looking at ideas. I was fairly determined to not just pick a 100% premade something to buy either. If I was ok with that it would have been pretty easy. We went from lion to shark to firefighter and that's where we settled. While I was still determining this more than a week before Halloween, it became evident that I was going to need to order some things online, so suddenly it felt very last minute because we didn't have much wiggle room. I was going to buy Andrew a hooded zip up sweatshirt and pants that he could re-wear (that way it didn't feel like just a one time costume wear). Not readily available in the brick and mortar stores, I finally found a black hooded zip up to order through Target. I would have thought it would be easier to find one, but I really was lucky to find one among a number of sites. Even then I settled for one with "ears." I figured if something went wrong he could go as a bear. (It's actually really cute!) I was able to go buy the black pants in the store. I also ordered a plastic firefighter hat online to be sent to Walmart for pickup. I could have paid more for a "nicer" one, but remember I was trying to not spend a whole lot. I could have also gotten a better deal per hat if I wanted lots from Oriental Trading, but I only really wanted one, so Walmart it was. I also got yellow tape at Target. I taped on "reflective" lines onto the jacket and pants and we paired it with the hat, that of course he wasn't really interested in wearing. I thought it turned out pretty cute! People could tell what he was, he felt like he was just in regular clothes (hat aside), and I felt satisfied that I "put it together."<br />
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Our main Halloween festivities started with the ward party/trunk-or-treat on October 30. Unless you count us shopping at Target (again) that morning! That's when we got the tape, the candy, and some things for our Halloween dinner. I applied the tape while he napped that afternoon. He napped for a looong time, and we really should have left sooner to make our other stops and then get to the church on time for the trunk or treat. It all worked out....<br />
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Still bent on trying to save a buck (a curse??!) I was going to check at a dollar store for a cheap plastic firefighter hat on our way north to the church. I found that there was one right by Walmart where we needed to stop for the hat anyway. Well, Dollar Magic was an interesting store. Tons of inventory, yes - everywhere... We looked around for a couple minutes and that was enough. With my 20/20 hindsight we wouldn't have taken the time. Oh well. I also forgot to be totally honest with myself regarding how long it would take for them to get our site to store order (the hat).... We quickly got a couple Halloween dinner items that I figured would be cheaper there than Target that also wouldn't require refrigeration and could just sit in the car while we were at the church. I also wasted some time looking for plastic spiders (rings or not) that I hoped to have for our dinner. Not that important, but I was hoping to find them. Well, it was October 30, so clearly it's time to be packing up all things Halloween and starting to set out Christmas. So that was an easy way to waste some time, too. At the time, though, I saw that customer service was right next to the seasonal section. We went to the counter and they said we'd have to go out to the garden center. For my site to store order? Yes.... So we hurried down there to the wintertime layaway center. We didn't have to wait too long for our turn, but there seemed to be complication left and right with finding our order. Now, in general, I get annoyed with people badmouthing Walmart and their patrons. It's not ok to pick on people unless it's Walmart? Drives me crazy. I'm not saying they don't have their weaknesses, like the rest of us... that being said, I may still be hypocritical here... sorry..... So on this evening as I'm looking at the time and it's taking forever and a day and seeing that not only will we not be able to arrive a little early like they requested, but we'll be late. The guy working on the order mentioned some issue and said with a grin, "That's Walmart for you!" Internally I raised my eyebrows. Then I shouted at him (in my head), "YOU are Walmart!" He regained some approval when he told me he would ring up my other purchases there (though he wasn't supposed to) because it would be faster for me. We're talking 4-5 items. It took forever..... and then the last thing was the bananas. Andrew loves them and we'd been out for a few days. He said the scale suddenly wasn't working. Maybe he didn't know the code? He walked around the area looking for someone to ask for help. Finally after a phone call he said that someone was going to come. When??? I didn't mean to be rude but I asked if they were coming right then. He said they always say that but usually don't. I ask if I should take the stuff back inside to buy, but really not wanting to. He said I could pay for everything else then buy the bananas inside..... So then I tell him we'll leave the bananas and just buy everything else. Then we rush out and Andrew thinks it's hilarious and awesome that his mom is running across the front of Walmart from one far side to the other pushing the cart telling him we're going "so fast!" ("wooohoooo!!" : ) It was dark... Though I probably would have still run and delighted him in the light : ) By this time it's a little after 6:30, when the activity was set to start. It took nearly 20 minutes to get to the church from there with the traffic, but of course there were others arriving with us and after us and we really hadn't missed much of anything.<br />
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The party was fun. Since we're so new it was hard to know with some of the people who was really in the ward and who was a friend there with a friend. There was a puppet show for the kids that we couldn't really hear, then lots of activities to go around to. Andrew found some playground balls and that was all he needed. We did take him around to some different booths. He threw a sticky bug at a target and pinned a nose on a jack-o-lantern. I colored part of a picture on his behalf. Of course the cupcake decorating table was pretty much always crowded as was the donut on a string, so we let others do those. Will bobbed for an apple, then Andrew ate the entire thing (and it wasn't small!) over the course of the evening. He ate the apple and chased the balls while we sat on the floor and watched people wrap each other up in toilet paper. <br />
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Pinning the nose on the jack-o-lantern.</div>
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Will got it with no hands! But he did admit that the shallow bowl made it pretty easy. </div>
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Then we went down to the "parking garage" for the trunk or treat. I bought a pack of white paper lunch sacks and a pack of crayons at Target to make our decorations. Someone commented that they were pretty good for having limited resources right now. I didn't tell her that that was probably about what they would have looked like even if I wasn't so limited... : ) ha I was proud to tell her, though, that my decoration ideas all came from my head, NOT pinterest. And that, my friends, is what I'd call a success! Will and I took turns taking Andrew to different cars and collecting candy in his hat. If he sees it, he's interested and wants you to share. Otherwise he isn't big enough to ask for candy yet. Or to ask if we've eaten his stash.... : )<br />
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I took a picture of these at home after I'd colored the faces. Good thing, too, because they spun around in the trunk spending most of their time backwards... ugh. And I hadn't thought to draw on both sides! Next time... And sorry, this is actually my last picture/caption as I'm adding them and going back over things. At this point I'm going to make you just turn your head to see them right side up because I don't want to fiddle with figuring out how far back in the process I need to go to turn it.... Never mind. It was going to bother me and the good news is it was easy : ) Now it's easier to see, too, that I accidentally broke my black crayon... so annoying!</div>
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Saturday morning (October 31) we drove up to a "pumpkin patch" in Mahwah. It kind of bothers me when they put a bunch of picked pumpkins in a field, and it's not the actual patch, but oh well. Is that weird? BUT, they had sanded down all the stem "handles" for maximum safety and comfort in picking and carrying pumpkins, and that was nice. From Jersey City it took about an hour to get up there, but we went on new roads so it was all very interesting. PLUS the trees are all super pretty with all the different colored leaves! It's so refreshing to be somewhere where there's more than 1.5 seasons. The pumpkin patch had lots of neat and cute things. Interesting squash to see, cut outs for pictures, hay and corn mazes, a corn box with tractors and dump trucks, farm fresh produce to buy, hayride, fun decorations, etc. Andrew wanted an apple as soon as he saw them so we let him "pick" one out. We got that and some apple cider donuts to enjoy. mmmm : ) Once again, with his apple, life was good. <br />
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Someone offered to take our picture here - how nice! </div>
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Sharing apple cider donut bites! </div>
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We thought the apple cut out was a good choice for our apple lover. </div>
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That face is making his car/truck/bus/and apparently tractor vehicle noise.</div>
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He loved the corn box! The dried kernels had the same coloration as candy corn... must be why those colors? I had never even considered that that was based on a real thing. They were really pretty to see so many in one spot. We found the kernels here and there for almost the rest of the day. We also had to keep them out of his mouth - he's mostly figured out what's not food, but this looked like food! There was a nice family next to us there and the grandma kept making a small outcry every time he tried or succeeded. Her son/daughter/in-law? kept getting after her like they were embarrassed. It was kind of funny and I know she was just trying to help so I wasn't worried about it. They were very nice and we talked with them for a bit. </div>
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I thought those long twisty squash were neat. They had several interesting varieties of squash, pumpkins, etc to see. </div>
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He was so excited to see the pumpkins he was trying to pick them up! He's loved to see and "pet" pumpkins that we've been seeing around lately. He calls them something like "bup" and apples are usually close to "bap." He can see them in pictures (books, grocery store, etc) and he gets excited. We really love the book Apple Farmer Annie and I'm so glad it's one of the handful we packed along to have with us while in temporary housing! </div>
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Mom! I'm at a pumpkin patch! </div>
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Family selfie! of sorts... </div>
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A nice teenage girl offered to take our picture! We made sure to get their family, too. </div>
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Riding back on the hayride with Dad! </div>
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They had some giant decorations made with hay bales. This skeleton was cool. They had painted different sized sticks and logs to make the body. Not pictured are the minion and Olaf : ) (I just had to draw the line somewhere on what to put on the blog! I do have them if you really want (need?) to see them. They were two bales stacked and then just painted to look like them.</div>
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We thought this skeleton going in for a slam dunk was funny and clever! </div>
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This was my favorite hay bale decoration! </div>
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There was no real reason we had Will's cut out picture in this one. I do think it's fun/funny, though : ) Probably because of the funny face he's making. Those are the pumpkins we chose to take home with us. Probably since it was Halloween and the "end" of the season for them you could take one from the hayride patch home for free - 1 for each person. So of course we needed three to bring home to be able to play with under the coffee table.</div>
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After exploring and enjoying that place we crossed the street to a park by some ball fields. We played at the park for a little bit and enjoyed the scenery as there was a nice pond and lots of trees right by it.<br />
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SO COOL!!! A car he can drive himself! vrrrroooom! </div>
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K, but seriously, guys, look at that scenery! Being there with my little family was like one giant peaceful sigh. Real life! I didn't have to pinch myself : )</div>
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Fun times on the swings, including underdogs!</div>
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Then we went to a new friend's first birthday party! We played with toys, ate food, and played at a park near their house. We met some of their medical school friends who also just moved to the area as well as got to know some others in the ward... who also have moved in in the last little while. In CA it was easy to find people with tech related jobs. Out here it's a lot harder. Especially among the "young family" set in our ward. Most of them are here for residencies, internships, etc - medical things. So it's interesting to hear them all talk about those sorts of things with each other!<br />
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That evening we had our Halloween dinner! We didn't feel like we needed to take Andrew trick or treating around the building, so it was just family stuff then, which was nice. I wasn't able to print out a menu this year, but made sure to tell Will what all the stuff was called anyway. : ) We ate it off of those cute partitioned Halloween plates/school lunch trays I found in the Target dollar section. (And I told myself I wouldn't be buying new Halloween decorations/stuff this year as we're in temporary housing! ha!)<br />
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Andrew likes "monster brains" and "monster eyeballs!"</div>
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There was also "mummy toast" and "healthy candy corn"</div>
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I guess we don't have any pictures of the "pumpkin juice," which did have a small amount of pumpkin in it! (The rest was carrot mango.)</div>
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Some of the mummies had mouths! Honestly, I think they looked a little cooler before going into the oven. Also, if I weren't so stingy there would have been more/larger cheese pieces to give it a better mummy look.</div>
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Dessert: Spider Eggs - with little spiders... : ) mmmm</div>
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Another good Halloween in the books! And in my tummy.... : )Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-44335889539138365092015-10-26T19:54:00.002-07:002015-10-26T19:54:22.292-07:00"Real Life" in Jersey CityAfter typing up the "story" of us moving out to New Jersey + our first week and a half here or so I asked Will what I should title it. I was just ready to call it "done" so I didn't give it too much effort and just called it "Life in Jersey City." Borrrringggggg!!!!! I've also been thinking about how it was more heavy on the events and things we'd filled our days with, but it lacked several details that really tell what life has been like. I'll think of more things over time, but now let me tell you some things that describe real life right now. And that's what we like to see on this blog! : )<div>
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So, in no particular order.... most of this will probably be about Andrew, by the way...</div>
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Andrew is pretty into shoes right now. He likes to find my shoes and get them for me. Sometimes he likes to put his feet into them, but he really just likes to help me untie them and put them onto my feet. He says something along the lines of "shzzz"</div>
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The elevators all have mirrors so you can see yourself every time you head somewhere. Unfortunately this makes me a little more self conscious, especially with the top lighting in the elevators making my hair look that much more frizzy.... blahhhhh. BUT, we like the elevator because Andrew likes to press the buttons (with help... : ) AND he loves to throw his head back and see his reflection in the ceiling mirrors and laugh and say "haaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" And my hair looks better when I throw my head back and see my reflection in the ceiling mirrors, too : )</div>
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Andrew loves to throw things. Balls, socks, toys, food........... Mealtime used to be so peaceful..... ha! : )</div>
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Andrew lately will throw his head back and laugh sometimes. It's cute and funny. He wants to be able to play with the blinds cords. Those are off limits for safety reasons and he gets mad. That's not cute or funny... </div>
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We figured Andrew would regress in some area or another with all the changes with moving. It's seemed to be the sleeping. Last night was the first night that he stayed in his own bed the whole night. That doesn't mean that he didn't wake up needing help at 2:something, but he did stay in his own bed. It was exciting. He's always been an "early" riser, and even when it's still dark he's up at about 6:30 give or take. The really exciting thing is that we'll get to start over with helping him feel settled and comfortable when we move into our house in a couple weeks. Woohoo!! At least he'll have his own real bed then. He's been in a pack and play.... We all miss the crib. </div>
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Andrew is getting better at climbing onto things. He's a little too short to be able to get onto the couches himself, thankfully, but he loves to be able to find something to give him a boost to climb up onto the coffee table. Whoever invented coffee tables anyway???</div>
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Monday, October 12 in the evening we saw fireworks being shot off over the Hudson - looked like from Manhattan you'd be able to see them in front of the Statue of Liberty. Cool! We figured it was for Columbus Day?</div>
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A couple of weeks ago I got stopped twice within 10-15 minutes and asked for money while we were out walking. Hasn't happened since. </div>
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We drive past the entrance to the Holland Tunnel sometimes (like on the way to/from church and some other times.) I haven't counted how many lanes across, but it's a ton. And the sign across the top is huge. It's fun to see.</div>
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The lobby in our building has some fancy looking decorations and 24 hour concierge in their suits so I feel like we're in some nice hotel. Move here if you're rich (and have to pay yourself, ha!) and like dogs. They like dogs so much that they have a bowl of doggie treats at the concierge desk that people can get their dog a treat from. I have yet to see the bowl of people treats.... But I do see a man with a blond man-bun who works in the glass-enclosed leasing office side.</div>
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Andrew is into all things "transportation." He's good at spotting airplanes and helicopters, and does like the boats, but his hands-down favorite is the light rail trains. He loves to look for them out the window. We spend time every single morning watching them, and sometimes in the evening. Sometimes we go park on the sidewalk and watch them come and go.</div>
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I'm sure there's more things that I've thought to myself that I should write down, but this is good for now. Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks. These are all of Andrew from a project we were working on yesterday. I'll add a couple more later - like the views out the windows, etc. But I'm sure these will be more fun anyway.</div>
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OH! I trimmed Andrew's hair on Saturday. It was getting sooo long. I like it long/combable, but it was in his eyes bad, and over his ears. When a lady asked me last week "boy or girl" it wasn't really a turning point, but I did wonder if it was the hair... I'd already told Will I was ready to cut it. I wanted to try to do it myself before taking him somewhere. I figured it could always get fixed somewhere else : ) We have hair scissors with our trimmer, but obviously not here right now. We didn't really want to buy another set, so we decided I could try with the kitchen shears...... : ) despite Will's slight reservations.... Ask Andrew to hold his head still for longer than a millisecond. Yeah... good luck. He just wanted to see what I was doing. We had him in his booster seat with food and Will to entertain. I trimmed what I could for a while with the mediocre scissors and knew that it was at least out of his eyes. It's certainly not professional, but it is shorter. We decided it's fine for a 1 year old : ) It really is fine! We'll have to see if in a month or two we cut it "short" with the trimmers or if we try to trim it long again...</div>
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Final note... remember how a week ago it got really cold and I went and bought Andrew fleece footie pajamas and Will and I each some sweatpants? Well... we all three went to a grocery store together Saturday morning each of us in our sweat pants (at least Andrew wasn't in his pjs!). I told Will something like, "the family who sweatpants together, ........ " : ) </div>
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Ok. the pictures. Andrew gets up early!</div>
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On the playground at Liberty State Park</div>
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In the building's "Kids' Play Room" He loved to bang that mallet on anything that would be loud. I noticed a day or two ago an adult had put it up on a ledge... hahaha Usually when we're in there hardly anyone else is, so who knows what some other kid did with it.<br />
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He likes to eat his bagels, and lots of other things, "vertical." That seems to be the fastest way to get to the cream cheese. Also the fastest way to get it all over his face.<br />
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He likes help putting them on. Then he takes them off and hands them to me. He wants me to put them on him again. Every 5 steps or so... : ) He's really only needed them once on a walk lately.<br />
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He's been doing this move for several weeks now. He also thinks it's super cool to have race car pajamas. vroom vroom!<br />
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This is from walking along the marina right by where we're living, looking back toward lower Manhattan. The tallest one is the new World Trade Center. The same marina that we watch boats come in and out of. The same marina that separates us from Liberty State Park and makes it so we have to walk half an hour or so around it to get there. You have to walk through city to get up to the foot bridge connecting downtown Jersey City to the park. We've done the walk several times and it's got plenty to see along the way. The walk along the marina edge only goes so far, then you'd have to cut back into the city. But that walk is fun, too, of course. I don't really have walking through the city pictures yet because I feel like a weirdo taking them. I tell myself right before we're going to move out of Jersey City I guess I'll feel a little more bold...<br />
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Those monster socks!! My grandparents gave them to Andrew when we saw them for our sealing in May. It was too warm to need them until we moved here. I told Andrew the monsters say "aaaaahhhhh" in a high pitched voice. He can tell you what they say : ) And it was a multi pack, so we have several sets of monsters socks! Perfect for Halloween! </div>
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And that, my friends, is another snapshot into our "real" lives here in Jersey City.</div>
Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-14978580512819516072015-08-30T22:11:00.001-07:002015-08-30T22:44:31.678-07:00A day in the life!I struggle to write regularly in a journal, so I do a few different things to make an effort to record my thoughts and memories. One way I "journal" is by taking lots of pictures of what we do. Will has come to accept this (mostly) and I've also learned, generally, what things will embarrass Will, so I try to make it snappy (ha, nice pun, huh? : ) One of the things that would make me the saddest would be losing my pictures. Really sad. Mega sad. Don't mess with me and my pictures!<br />
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Here are some picture highlights from this last week with a little extra commentary so that you can enjoy them too!</div>
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Andrew loves to hug stuffed animals right now. It started with hugging his Curious George - he saw it modeled some. Then the other morning (note the PJs) as he was pulling toys out to play with he pulled out a small teddy bear (that I won spinning a wheel at the Tracy PD's booth at the Tracy Dry Bean Festival (sounds like a blast, huh? : ) in 2011 - an extremely hot day in early September). He made the connection that it was also a soft, hugable thing, and I was lucky enough to catch several shots. Here are some of the cutest. </div>
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Seriously, though, does it get any cuter??!</div>
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Andrew still likes the washer and dryer, but he's much more interested now in the fridge and the dishwasher. Of course I won't let him play in it with dirty dishes, but I do let him "help" me unload the clean ones. I know that seems counter productive as he handles and even licks things, but I'm ok with it for now - pick your battles, you know? I open it while he's across the way and hurry and take out any sharp knives. Then while he hustles his little self over I take out the forks, table knives, and anything else I might not want him to get. Could he potentially get hurt still on a spoon? Yes, but I guess I feel better about it. Anyway, he loves it!</div>
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Thursday evening Will and I got to go to San Francisco to see The Phantom of the Opera (totally awesome!). It was our fun outing for our anniversary and we'd been looking forward to it for a while. That afternoon while I was cleaning up a few things before the babysitter came, I knew Andrew had gotten into the bathroom. Since I knew he was in one place and wasn't worried about him slapping his hands on the edge of the tub as he stood there, I decided to let him be for a bit. I realized after a couple minutes I wasn't hearing him play with the bath toys anymore or hitting the tub. Well, he was happy so I still took care of a couple other things. Then I decided I better go get him out and tell him he'd had enough time to play in there. I rounded the corner of the little hallway and audibly gasped - startled him and made him jump! Then I just giggled and took some pictures. I asked him if he had at least had a good time. Then I carefully re-wrapped the roll the best I could and replaced it for the babysitter.<br />
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Whatever shenanigans he got into later were between him and the babysitter because we were busy here having a great time!<br />
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And since then Will's gotten a haircut. Andrew and I still need a trim! Forgive my excess dry shampoo in this picture - I'm not THAT grey yet! (but close...wah!)</div>
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And there you have it! Andrew's birthday pictures coming soon!</div>
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Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-71308976092686849732015-08-09T20:24:00.001-07:002015-08-09T20:24:36.035-07:00Mother knows bestI remember one time as a kid I had the idea (or wondered aloud?) and suggested buttering toast before you put it into the toaster. Maybe I was thinking that it'd be fun to watch it melt as the bread crisped up. Maybe for some reason I thought this would be more efficient? My mom made sure to tell me that you should never ever butter bread before putting it into the toaster because it could start a fire, or something like that. She reiterated: always butter it after.<br />
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I think about that pretty much every time I butter toast and have for as long as I can remember. I did again the other night when buttering some toast to go with our omlets for dinner.<br />
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Thanks to my mom I'm also extra cautious if I'm reaching to grab another piece out with the same hand that's holding the knife that already has some butter on it. What if the heat from the toaster causes the butter to melt and drip off into the toaster causing some potentially unknown harm???<br />
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These are the things I think about : )Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-81146153465902832132015-08-02T20:42:00.001-07:002015-08-02T22:32:52.385-07:00Sunday DinnerI LOVE Chinese food! Well, I love American Chinese food, at least. I know that for sure : )<br />
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Two birthdays ago we got Chinese take-out because I had been craving it, and, well, it was my birthday! This last birthday I wanted Chinese again, but I decided to make a few things at home, from scratch. I made orange chicken, vegetable lo mein, and pot stickers. Yummo, right?! Well, that and rice and broccoli, of course. Anyway, it took many hours to make it all myself at once - three new-to-me recipes. (Will and I love to cook together, but he was taking care of Andrew.) So more hours than I would have liked, and a deep-fried house smell later, we sat down to a delicious meal! <br />
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There were leftovers of everything. Some of the things got eaten up in the following days, but the pot stickers filling got put in the freezer along with the extra wrappers. I'm pretty sure there was a time since then that we made another batch of pot stickers to go with something else.<br />
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Yesterday when we were meal planning for the week we decided we wanted something like orange chicken again - or something else "Chinese"... : ) We settled on orange chicken, and also decided this time we'd just get a bag from the frozen section. So that's what we had tonight for dinner. After fasting all day, it was a tasty meal to look forward to! We had the orange chicken, rice, broccoli (which Andrew loves!), and the rest of the pot stickers. <br />
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Now, we didn't know for sure if we still had some or if we'd eaten it up before. I checked each level of the freezer door, then each shelf (working from the bottom up) and finally found it on the top shelf! (My wallet is always in the last diaper bag pocket I check, so why wouldn't the rest of the pot sticker filling be on the last freezer shelf I check??) Luckily, I had seen the wrappers yesterday, so those were easy (top freezer shelf).<br />
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I was able to get 17 little delectable pot stickers formed and on the pan. Oh, after frying them in February, we decided it was way easier to bake them - and healthier? : ) We still spray them with cooking spray. Baked 6 minutes on each side to a golden brown. There they sat on the pan on the stove top next to the broccoli during dinner and we just got up to get them - part lazy, part table space. Since there were 17 we knew we could each have 4 today, and 4 on the leftovers day. With one more to arm wrestle over, I guess!<br />
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When I got up to get some more broccoli and my second two pot stickers I didn't really count or anything, just saw that there seemed to be lots on the pan still. I went back around the counter to the table and asked Will, "Did you forget about the pot stickers?" He answered, "Did I forget about the pot stickers??? Did YOU forget about DISNEYLAND???!!" : )<br />
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Hahahahahaha! I guess I make pretty good pot stickers! : )Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-4809767619439755862015-07-29T21:33:00.000-07:002015-07-29T21:34:47.157-07:00just before the end of the month...This guy wants to wish everyone a happy July!<br />
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Willhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02245028631033613571noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-39323800677111421632015-06-14T22:18:00.001-07:002015-06-14T22:18:47.907-07:00Flag Day!Today was Flag Day! (It was also our sweetie pie's 10 month birthday!) I love the patriotic holidays and wanted to think of something festive for today. In the past we've made American flag pancakes and American flag lasagna. I feel like we've done other things, but that's all I can remember right off. And of course there's always the red, white, and blue treats. <br />
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Last year Flag Day was on Saturday and we were in Washington D.C. where the original manuscript of the Star Spangled Banner was on display along with the flag that Francis Scott Key saw as he wrote it. That was pretty cool. They also had a big outdoor concert going on on the Mall with lots of groups of kids singing. <br />
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Today we made American flag meatloaf! : ) <br />
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AND we went to a double Eagle Scout Court of Honor. How patriotic! : ) The two boys together accompanied the opening hymn - America the Beautiful, one on the organ, and one on the piano. Then there was this awesome cake made by one of the boys' aunts.<br />
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Go America! : ) Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217399238875819204.post-79301628457770441752015-06-07T21:10:00.001-07:002015-06-07T21:10:42.381-07:00east coast trip - day 3day 3 - friday, june 6 - the sun was out!<br />
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after breakfast and getting ready we drove down to the alewife mbta (subway) station on the red line. we rode down to the park street station and emerged into boston common!! i had loved the day before, but all leading up to the trip this was the day/place i was most excited for!!<br />
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we planned to walk the traditional freedom trail throughout the city so we walked up and started at the massachusetts state house. i couldn't remember and wasn't expecting it to be a living, breathing, in-use building. it made me feel like we were intruding a little and i was nervous to go somewhere i wasn't supposed to. keep in mind this was the beginning of the trip, though, i was still warming up!<br />
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and someone didn't shave that morning! ok, probably neither of us! ha : )<br />
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pretty architecture, murals, windows, statues, etc inside.<br />
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when we left we went across the street to start on the freedom trail. there was a large group of high school aged kids trying to get organized. i was a little scared we'd be mistaken and someone would get after us for not staying where they wanted us to.. ha! we got more used to that scenario each day throughout the trip as well.<br />
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ONE YEAR LATER - June 6, 2015<br />
We have spent the last couple days remembering where we were a year ago and reminiscing and wishing we were back there again!! In memory, and in hopes that we can still half-well document our awesome vacation, I'll make an effort to write a post for each day a year later. Of course they won't be as detailed as the first ones for a few reasons, but enjoy living vicariously as we relive it!<br />
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Luckily for us the high school group needed more time to regroup so we could start on the Freedom Trail by ourselves. Here's a few highlight pictures:<br />
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We went by some old cemeteries and were able to see burial sites for Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and some others.<br />
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School Street - Site of the oldest public school in the United States, they say on this fancy thing that was in the sidewalk. Public school is not even close to perfect, but it does a lot of good and has a special place in my heart. <br />
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View across the street of The Old South Meeting House. It's fun to see all the old stuff mixed in between all the newer stuff. We bought tickets there that included a self-guided tour of that place plus two (?) others. We still had a lot of energy and interest in reading all sorts of placards, picture captions, etc, so we didn't just walk through quickly. It was interesting and fun to learn about all the different uses the building had had, including events that now, to us, seem so significant.<br />
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Inside the Old South Meeting House.</div>
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The Old State House was the next place we toured. We went lots of places where security and preservation was important, so this was one of the first places we had to check our backpack and weren't allowed to keep it with us. They gave each of us these name tag necklaces with names of people who were around during the Revolution with a brief background and their viewpoint. There may have been a question to consider, too? I guess this is the only picture (below) we have where you can kind of see it. We didn't take care to remember who we had. Maybe I had Abigail Adams? Will just remembered that we have all those sorts of things saved!! I actually had Elizabeth Adams and he had Jeffrey Hartwell. Fun stuff! : )<br />
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Next we sat on a bench in this courtyard to apply sunscreen - much needed! It was fun to see the period costumed tour guides leading around groups - mostly school groups it looked like. It was fun to hear what they had to say when we could. There was a nice Samuel Adams statue near us. <br />
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Backside (?) of Faneuil Hall.<br />
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Inside the hall.<br />
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Back behind the hall there were a couple different market buildings with lots of different choices for food to buy - mostly specialty or "upscale" casual. I don't know what to call them, but it wasn't chain things really like Subway, McDonalds, etc We walked through for fun.<br />
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The front side (?) of the hall.<br />
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We were really there! And all sunscreened up now! <br />
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Gaaahhhhh!!!! Why aren't we there again right now???!!!!! We can't stop talking about how awesome that vacation was!!!!<br />
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Ok. Then we walked through an outdoor market. I remembered that from being there years before with my familiy, that the trail went right through one. It's always fun to see all the fish, produce, etc out in the natural lighting and for a little while all you want to eat is fresh produce! <br />
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Lovely. Guarding that produce, I guess.<br />
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A brick portion of the trail. Other places it's just painted red, but it's fun where it is the real brick. And in this case next to a cobblestone street spot!<br />
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Some buildings just looked OLD.<br />
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Those blueberries were from California. HOWEVER, we had to fly across the country and walk to an outdoor market in Boston to find them for a good price! I couldn't believe my luck when I saw that that guy was selling them for $1.50 (I think) a box!!! I should have bought two! I was so thrilled that I was only a tiny bit sad when I saw a different guy just after that was selling them for a dollar. And these weren't the skinny little flat boxes that could only fit about two blueberries high in them. This was well worth the trip! : ) We enjoyed eating those and savoring them. Really we should have bought more.<br />
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Next was Paul Revere's house. I remember seeing it with my family before, but Will and I did go in it. They won't let you take any pictures in there, so you'll just have to believe us : ) It's visiting things that like with all their old belongings artifacts that makes you wonder if you really should be throwing away all your old toothbrushes or if they'll be worth millions one day!! Here's the outside:<br />
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Here we're waiting in the court yard to go in. I can't remember what that bell is anymore, but thought we could all get a chuckle out of my concentrated reflection.. ha : )</div>
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Here's a view of the Old North Church with a statue of Paul Revere riding. That's the ol' one if by land, two if by sea church! The British are coming!<br />
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Sitting in a nearby courtyard taking a break. Probably a blueberry break! : ) Courtyard might not be the official name... It had the dog tag memorial for the fallen military members of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Memorial garden maybe.<br />
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So nobody asked us, so they went ahead and scheduled a graduation ceremony in the church for that afternoon, making it inaccessible to tourists like us. I should have told them that I just knew that Michael was in there and we didn't want to miss it. So rather than standing around and waiting until it finished AND they cleared it out we decided that we'll just have to see the inside next time. There will be a next time! Actually the ceremony was finishing and they were starting to come out as we were there. We hurried up the street and took this picture looking back without too much of a crowd.</div>
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Fun thing we saw in the street along the trail. I can't think of any words to replace "thing" right now...</div>
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Walking across the bridge. You can see the Bunker Hill Monument.<br />
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Years ago we noticed little jellyfish swimming under the bridge. They've still thriving!<br />
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Before Bunker Hill we went to the Navy Yard. There were lots of guys in uniform. They were doing some kind of ceremony (we can't remember and I don't think we really knew for sure then, either) on the USS Constitution so it was fairly busy AND the ship was off limits while they did their stuff which made it hard to go tour it. There was a line to get tickets, but you couldn't really go into the ship area until a certain time - it was confusing. Then if you left the museum area right by it (and where you got the tickets) then it was like you forfeited your ticket. We did tour the museum briefly with little competition since others were in line for the ship, but since they kept changing how long the wait time would be (it kept growing of course) we decided to save that ship for another time. Instead we went and explored the other ship docked there on the opposite side. <br />
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My knowledge of naval ships and their eras is severely lacking, so I don't really know much about this one. It's hard to imagine living on one of these for a while.<br />
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Now that's a kitchenaid I could use for all sorts of things! : )<br />
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These ships always have these steep staircase things, great for photo ops!<br />
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Then we walked up to the Bunker Hill Monument. Those things always look taller once you're standing at the base of it! There was a big group hanging out on the lawn listening to a guy talk about it and answer questions. It looked like a group of middle schoolers and their chaperones. I can't remember now if it looked like we all had to sit there and listen, or if we were just interested. He didn't talk too much longer after we arrived, but then we realized that if we were going to beat this big crowd in there we better get up fast and get in there! Of course they were moseying around a little bit so it wasn't too bad. We went into the building thing at the base and the guy asked if we wanted to climb to the top. We said yes! He waved us through and sent us on up - he must have known we were barely beating them : ) I stopped myself short of saying "yes, why else would I have come in here?" : ) Not only do they look taller when you're closer, but you realize that they really are a few more steps to the top than you think. But we just kept pressing up - 1, to get there, and 2, to stay ahead of our school friends. It's always great views once you're there!<br />
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This must have been coming back down. I don't have too much of a problem going up, but you better have a REAL good reason to need my hand gripping rail if I'm coming down! By now we were passing some of the kids - what a hoot : )</div>
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Once down from the monument we asked a lady to take our picture with it. Then we crossed the street to the accompanying museum of the monument. It was there that we saw signs that told us that we were supposed to have gone there to get tickets to climb it. Oops? Obviously the guy working the base didn't care too much. We were getting tired so we didn't spend too long in there. Long enough to read some things and see some battle scene replicas though : )</div>
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From there our plan was to be making our way back to the MBTA (subway) station. We had it worked out with where the car was - and probably to save a few dollars, too, of course.. haha So we were planning to go by way of MIT and Harvard to see them for fun, then ride from the Harvard station back to the Alewife station. </div>
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A little pause for history here - When I was in Boston with my parents and younger brothers in 2007 it was at about this point (getting to the Bunker Hill Monument) that I started to get a little vocal about the length of all the walking and jokingly called it the Boston Marathon. In my memory I wasn't THAT tired, but maybe my parents would tell you how whiny I really was. I remembered this and told Will as we were in this general area for old times' sake.</div>
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Now, back to a year ago. My legs weren't that tired, but it was my feet in new, not-broken-in shoes that were getting sad. There were a couple of spots that were starting to get that warm rubbed feeling. Rather than concede to Will that's what the real issue was since I was feeling dumb about it, I didn't mention my feet, but instead started getting whiny about being tired and all the walking we still had to do. : ) I just now looked it up and Google Maps says it's a 3 mile, 1 hour walk from the monument to Harvard. But remember, we wanted to see MIT as well. And it sounded fun to walk along the Charles River stuff. So that made it longer than 3 miles and more than an hour. I was trying all the classic stuff to make my feet not so bad (walking different, etc), but it kept getting worse. I also added in the being hungry to try to cover up. Somewhere between MIT and Harvard we stopped to eat - Will thinking that this would cure me, and me just looking forward to slipping my feet out of my shoes for a little bit!</div>
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We didn't want to eat "regular" food that we could get just anywhere. We wanted to eat food in each city that was more or less representative of the city or region. I had seen lobster rolls advertised lots of places and was interested, so that's what we were hunting for. We ended up eating at a local place (with a couple other locations) called Dolphin Seafood. (I just looked it up to get the exact name of the place and Google says that location is closed permanently now!) It seemed exciting and different since we usually wouldn't be planning to go to a seafood place. We looked up reviews before going there and to make sure they had lobster rolls, and they did! It turned out to be MIT and Harvard's graduation weekends, so there were lots of people coming in with their families, but we didn't have to wait long for a table. I was just so glad to slip my shoes off! </div>
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We got to try a lobster roll. I'm not much of a seafood person, so it really was lost on me if lobster has a real distinct, special flavor. It certainly wasn't canned tuna, salmon, tilapia, shrimp, or fish sticks which is about all I've had. I guess I've tried some other things, but I couldn't be blindfolded and tell you much. (Oh, except I did try an oyster(?) once and thought it tasted like I licked the bottom of the ocean and that was plenty enough for me. I might recognize that again...) Anyway, the lobster was mixed up with a few other things including something creamy and put on the roll with lettuce. It was good, but didn't knock my socks off. Will got blackened tilapia, I think, which is when we started buying that periodically because it was fairly mild and we liked it pretty well. Ok, enough about all that. While we were eating I confessed that my shoes were creating the real problem. : )<br />
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The break helped recharge me and we pressed on the last little bit to Harvard. It was fun to see all the old buildings and the statue of John Harvard and to be on the actual campus for a few minutes. We walked around a little bit and had fun observing all the people there. I guess I didn't say anything about MIT. It surprised me that it mostly seemed to blend in with all the other buildings around it - just an urban feel. I guess I didn't know much about the actual campus. So walking across the MIT campus mostly felt like just walking through more city stuff (though different from the city stuff where the Freedom Trail was).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieODRfHjjOM_eIGUnOc7EVrnQJqI0mbIWXwricOoPoIubj5F7M9AN5jBJ7quPqz9cgyx9jbGcjPbfARsEkUN5cEoGJqCKOrvIrqxZHjmjcRz-vf73gw6qOK9JmWBzoi2y2Ajc8hvLPdRIw/s1600/06_06_2014_145655.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieODRfHjjOM_eIGUnOc7EVrnQJqI0mbIWXwricOoPoIubj5F7M9AN5jBJ7quPqz9cgyx9jbGcjPbfARsEkUN5cEoGJqCKOrvIrqxZHjmjcRz-vf73gw6qOK9JmWBzoi2y2Ajc8hvLPdRIw/s320/06_06_2014_145655.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Then we finally rode the MBTA back to the car and continued on. The road we got on to drive was the freeway type road that went right past the temple before too long! We didn't take the time to get off and see it in the daylight just standing there, but we were able to see it well from the freeway and take a couple of pictures!<br />
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Then we were back on the road to get to our next hotel in Rochelle Park, NJ where we'd stay the next several nights. Google Maps says that drive must have taken us about 3 and a half hours. I'm sure we were happy to sit for a little bit!<br />
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It was so different from the West driving on the freeways because you couldn't see much of anything beside trees. It was pretty, but a little deceptive on how much was really out there blocked from view.</div>
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I do remember when we got to that next hotel it was dark, and probably fairly late. It's always hard to get to a new place in the dark because it's hard to create your mental image AND remember landmarks for driving around. We didn't plan to drive much from that hotel, but those details will be coming in the next post! Which... let's be honest, is NOT coming tonight June 7 : ) Hopefully in the next couple of days. But this concludes our vacation day 3 post - June 6, 2014!</div>
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<br />Ashleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17319649547979428092noreply@blogger.com2